Back Stories

All Blacks v Wales

Hamilton had a new stand with 1-2 seats left empty. Apart from that, it was a strong crowd.

The game was a good contest for the first 60 minutes then things deteriorated a little as All Black coach Greame Henry emptied the bench and Wales were unable to capitalise on mistakes.

Welsh Hair Bear, Adam Jones was in great form.

He had given Owen Franks some grief in the scrum the week before in Dunedin.

New Zealand Maori v Ireland

My brother and I ventured to Rotorua on a cold Friday night to watch the NZ Maori in action.

We enjoyed their first encounter of the season against the NZ Barbarians but thought they were lucky on that occasion and may struggle against a tidy Irish outfit smarting from their loss to the All Blacks one week prior.

I was also there to check out Robbie Robinson’s mullet, Luke McAllister’s shorts and anything of note from the Irish (i.e. Brian O’Driscoll).

We found Robinson in good form, McAllister had not changed his shorts, preferring those of a man with much smaller legs and another Adidas fashion disaster in the form of the NZ Maori players numbers.

This was a very exciting match. The Irish had the ascendancy up front which is often a gauge for who is going to win but the Maori attacked from everywhere and to great affect.

Hosea Gear ran rampant and the Maori won in a nail-biting finish.

The Northern Hemisphere teams have come a long way and we were pleased the Irish visited Rotorua for this match as we couldn’t make it to the first test.

Blues v Force, Week 10, Super 14

I was primarily looking for young Australian star, James O’Connor. With his dark eyebrows and short fringe his look has a feline quality. He reminds me of a painting of Siouxsie Soux that I had back in the 80s.

Exciting young Wallaby fullback, James O'Connor

80's punk icon, siouxsie-sioux

Also, I had written off the Blues victory over the Bulls as a one-hit wonder so I was there to see whether I needed to draft a retraction story about their good run-in.

They are off to South Africa but play the 3 worst performing teams when they get there – Cheetahs, Lions and Sharks.

They then return to complete the round-robin against the Chiefs – which could prove a highly significant match for the Blues.

Other sights

Young North Harbour prop, Mike Reid has developed a mustache and goatie to the 80′s curly afro look.

Reid first popped up on our radar in the Look-a-likes section (Eric Champ).

Ali Willams took on an Emperor-look.

The Western Force bench was particularly colourful

• Matt Dunning looking trim and proper
• Nick Cummins with his 80′s curly skateboarder look
• Sam Wykes had his afro in a Bun

Blues injuries meant changes for their front row.

David Hill got shorts from the forwards’ pile

Beards

Tony Woodcock took his Grizzly Adams beard over the try-line.

Joe Rokocoko got his over the line 3 times

The Blues Cheerleaders were out in force

Chiefs v Northern Bulls, Week 9, Super 14 (Waikato Stadium)

Brief

I was after 2 stories this week.

1. Blond Fabio

I was in search of the South African ‘Blond Fabio’. The Bulls have several candidates so it was time to get close up.

2. Zane Kirchner

I had earlier seen resemblance between the Bulls fullback and Lionel Richie. The short afro and oval shaped face were the starting points.

Now that Kirchner has gone with dreadlocks, and after seeing him in the flesh, I was sure there was a cartoon character that had the same hairdo.

There were a lot of Bulls fans

The stars were out …

All Black bad boy, Sione Lauaki went back to corn rolls with coloured tips and shining highlights.

We have seen him in all manner of hair dos and head dresses from afros to dreadlocks, from clean head to corn rolls.

I was interested to see how he would perform against a very physical Bulls pack. There were reports of legal proceedings against Lauaki recently and his performances on the field have not been as consistent or as significant as they could.

The big All Black is never far from the action.

At best, he is a wrecking ball with great balance and a turn of pace who breaks the line at will and puts players away or goes all the way himself.

At worst, he turns the ball over in contact and gets lost during games.

There was a pop-kick against the Highlanders and he passes the ball when to the naked eye, he should be running straight.

He is not the tireless-worker type like many of his opponents but unlike the others, he has the ability to bounce of the tacklers, fend the biggest men in rugby and run away from chasers.

On this occasion, his performance was OK. He hit the ball up with purpose and there created a break that looked promising.

[It was Kahui who had the drop-sies on this occasion]

2. Blond Fabio

Springbok number 12, Wynand Olivier has coloured blond hair.

New Zealand commentator, Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson commented on the popularity of long blond hair among South African rugby players so we were on the case.

He seems to have a little brother in the team who has not only copied the hairdo but the boots as well.

Bottom line: The Chiefs just don’t have it to win the Super 14 but they do have 1-2 interesting haircuts and pin-up boy, Richard Kahui.

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Chiefs v Crusaders, round 5, Super 12, 12 Mar 2010 (Waikato Stadium)

My brief was fairly brief this week.

Dan Carter is very popular so I needed a couple of shots of the Jockey model

The Chief’s Richard Kahui is also popular and so there is likely to be an angle or poll around who is the best looking.

I also wanted to see if the classic looks of Tnerau Latimer could be brought into the equation.
A colleague’s wife had seen him at the Mt Maunganui 1/2 Iron Man and reckoned he was hot

I have a story in draft about beautiful front-rowers and the Franks brothers are fine looking specimens

I also wanted some footage from the Waikato Supporters Club bar under the old stand for our series on Rugby World Cup 2011 Venues.

The bar has a considerable amount of memorabilia, knowledgeable members and inexpensive drinks. The guy I spoke to joked fondly about the Graham Purvis ‘scrum hand’ that helped Waikato beat Auckland in the 1992 NPC semi-final.

After that, things were pretty open. Canterbury are a pretty conservative team all around and so very little in the way of flamboyant hairdos.

I was hoping for a much improved Chiefs performance and a disciplined effort to combat the low mistake, ball retention strategies Canterbury were likely to adopt.

Unfortunately this didn’t happen.

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Chiefs v Reds, round 4, Super 14, 5 Mar 2010 (Waikato Stadium)

I had a very specific brief for last night’s match with 3 core objectives

1. Daniel Braid

I needed a good shot of Queensland Reds flanker, Daniel Braid. I had always felt the ex-All Black looked a little bit like the half-lion, half-man TV character, Vincent in Beauty and the Beast.

It was one of Linda Hamilton’s earlier efforts and another great make-up triumph from Ron Perlman, the man who brought us the Sayer of the Law (The Island of Dr. Moreau), Reinhardt (Blade II) Reman Viceroy (Star Trek Nemesis) and HellBoy.

For the record, Braid had a blinder against the Chiefs. He was all over the paddock, making tackles, creating turnovers and leading the pack. The best performance I’ve seen from him wearing the Reds jumper. There seems to be a theme with a lot of expat Kiwis playing rugby codes in Australia that they play their best against teams from the home country, especially when playing in New Zealand.

Morgan Turinui was the other standout for me on the night.

2. Pin-up boys

Also on my hit list was All Black pin-up, Richard Kahui. Kahui is very popular among internet-goers and so good for my search engine ranking.

It is true that TV puts on 10lbs because Kahui is very lean. There is not much bulk to him at all. It is accentuated by his height at 6ft 2in but he does no look anywhere near the 98kg that he is listed at.

Muscle weighs more than fat I guess. He had been in good form this season but was a little quiet last night.

Others of interest in this category were

• Kiwi-born, Aussie bad-boy, Quade Cooper
• All Black flanker, Tanerau Latimer

3. Quade Cooper’s new kicking style

My third target was Queensland’s fly half, Quade Cooper and in particular, his new kicking style. Cooper is popular among those who like the bad-boy rugby player types but it is his new upper body swing that had me intrigued.

It reminded me of the feline cartoon character who used to ‘exit sage left’ and say ‘heavens to Murgatroid’ (whatever that meant) but I couldn’t think of the cartoon’s name. Google knows all and youtube had the piece I needed to be able to give the kicking style an appropriate moniker – ‘The Snagglepuss’.

[Actually, Cooper's run up looked a bit like a golf swing. It makes sense to start with the arms to one side and upper body twisted in the opposite direction to where it would end up. It provides the kind of momentum that a golfer relies on to generate speed through the swing that is focused on the point of contact with the ball.

One difference with Cooper is that he does not use the full Snagglepuss for shorter shots at goal where as a golfer tends to use his full swing regardless of the distance of the shot.

This caught me off guard in the first half when Cooper's first kick was a short one. Queensland hardly saw the ball in the first 20 mins of the game so I was getting concerned that I may not get to see him in action. Then, Queensland wing, Will Chambers waltzed through the Chiefs line and I had my opportunity.

But the try was directly under the posts and hence the conversion was the easiest kick Cooper would take that night. I was poised, kneeling behind the goal and ready to utilise the full burst rate of my Canon EOS 50.

But he just kicked it quickly, no Snagglepuss - the moment was lost!

I found myself willing the Reds to win a penalty so I could catch the full monty.

This went against the grain a little but given the Chiefs dominance to this point, I felt it would be OK.

[It was not however and the Chefs eventual loss left me feeling full of guilt on the drive home].

Other
There are always things of interest going on in and around a big rugby match.

I caught up with injured Chiefs prop, James McGougan who has been frustrated by a niggling neck injury.

He was looking trim and very clean cut.

No remnant of the Barry White look of last year.

A very pleasant guy, we swapped stories of playing in England. Alecadoos and how players are only allowed in the member’s bars of rugby clubs by invitation.

TV sports presenter, Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson was accommodating with his thoughts on rugby player hairstyles.

And then there was the after-match press conference with Ewen McKenzie.